Lords of Cyberspace (thing)

Lords of Cyberspace, or LoC, is a MUD-like door game written for the MajorBBS back in the early 1990s. You can purchase this game from Gameport (at http://www.gameport.com), who are now the owners. The original author (it was pretty much one person, but I can't remember his name, although I once located him in the web) was with Blue Adept. The same company also produced the more popular Sword of Chaos, which I hear is very similar.

To quote the game:

Lords of Cyberspace is a multi-user cyberpunk computer terrorism game. In LoC, your goal is to use the hardware and software you acquire to cause as much trouble in cyberspace as is humanly possible.

To accomplish this task, you run programs on you CPUs, and steal documents from various companies, selling them to criminal elements to be found throughout the game. You can sell what software you don't want to software companies. However, I would not recommend stealing from software companies, because no others will buy your stolen goods.

The ultimate goal, in order to win the game, is to find the lost cyber city of Valhalla, somewhere in the depths of Cyberspace, and destroy the Divine Document. You need to do the following things in order to that (taken from the game documentation):

1. You have to become a /\/\aster (rank 29) before you can even get into the Valhalla Cyberplex (a nasty conglomeration of mega-vicious systems).

2. You have to actually find Valhalla. Valhalla is someplace in Frontier, the specific location of which changes every day.

3. You have to acquire the three different keys to Valhalla. These keys are programs that you can find throughout the game in different systems. They are WhiteKey, GreyKey and BlackKey. To enter the Valhalla Cyberplex, you need to be running all three of the key programs.

4. You have to find the Divine Document, of which there is one copy secreted someplace in amongst the dozens of systems that make up the Valhalla Cyberplex. Once you find it, all you have to do is unlock it and erase it, and BOOM, you're a Lord of Cyberspace!

Some tips, should you decide to take on the game:

Starting out, get a Knight, GateCrash, Bulldozer, and all of that from a BBS, and kill some of those GabLinks to gain a little experience. Then take on some Level 1 systems. Once you get some higher level programs (like 3 or 4), you can start taking on higher systems.

You don't need to be completely powerful to take on level 2+ systems. You just need to be fast, and lucky. A Cloak or Muffler is a good friend. You don't have to kill all the programs, just grab and run.

If you are being chased, just keep typing in b (the back command) until you reach your own cyberdeck. Unless you have been prevented from jacking out by a program, then you can always jack out from your own deck.

Once you get a little higher, you will need to get some high powered programs to invade places like Microsoft. The only place to really get these programs is the Alien City, which is somewhere in Cyberspace. The location changes every hour or so. You will never survive in there for long, since the programs are all level 15 or higher, including nasty Hyrdas, Lightnings, and who knows what else. But if you are fast, and don't get your deck nuked, you can get some of the best programs in the game.

Overall, the game is a lot of fun, one of the best of the 1990s door games, in my opinion.